The Chief Khalsa Diwan’s museum boasts of 75 weapons mentioned in the ‘ShastarNaam Mala’ penned by Guru Gobind Singh.Weapons on display at the Chief Khalsa Diwan museum located on

the Central KhalsaOrphanage premises in Amritsar.You may have seen museums preserving articles of historic importance for posterity, butin a unique initiative, the Chief Khalsa Diwan here has got the weapons of the times of Guru Gobind Singh made afresh on the basis of their description in “Shastar Naam Mala”compiled in “Dasam Granth” and showcased them in a museum.When The Tribune team stepped into the museum, located on the premises of CentralKhalsa Orphanage here on Thursday, it was pleasantly surprised to see shimmeringweapons tastefully displayed in glass cabinets with each weapon having its namementioned in Punjabi and English. At the centre of the museum is a huge portrait of GuruGobind Singh and below it is a picture frame displaying a few verses of “Shastar NaamMala”, a composition mentioning the names of weapons used during his lifetime. Oneither side of the Guru’s photograph are two huge spears --- Wada Sela and Naagni Wadi.While Wada Sela was used to tear apart shields sitting atop an elephant on thebattleground, Naagni Wadi is a type of spear with its head in serpentine shape, withwhich Bhai Bachitter Singh took on a drunken elephant during the second battle of Anandpur.The museum till now has succeeded in procuring 75 weapons mentioned in the “ShastarNaam Mala”. These include shamsheer, marthi, sela barchha, baaghnakha, faadi guraj,saithi, kadara, safajang, bugda, kirch, karauti, khanda, wadkari, kattas, shikarga,badamcha to name a few.On the one hand, you have baaghnakha, a claw-like weapon designed to fit over theknuckles and on the other you have jamdaadh, two-blade dagger which looks like demontooth. Then there is sarohi (a special sword), bichhua (crooked dagger), asi (curvedsword), and different types of arrows. The museum also boasts of microfilms of 67hukamnamas (edicts) of various Sikh gurus, which include 24 of Guru Gobind Singh, 28of Guru Teg Bahadur, six of Guru Hargobind and eight of Mata Sundari. Surprisingly,